Apple Remote Desktop App Reviews

So the software is not totally junk. When connecting with 3.4 version of the software on an older Mac Mini, the software is really fast. Connect it with a modern day Mac Mini running 3.8.5. and you might as well wait all day. You move the mouse and a few seconds later the mouse moves on the remoted computer. Type a letter and hopefully it will be the letter you typed and one instance of it. I often get echo repeats of the letter multiplying the problem. I can’t wait till they come up with a newer workable version of the software, like I said this one is junk. Dont bother.

When it works, it works pretty well. I would have given it 4-5 stars, but I’m giving it 3 stars because it stopped working recently, and the fix is kind of ugly. I am running it on OS X El Capitan v 10.11.6. But one day, it refused to launch and it would say "The Remote Desktop administrator software failed to start due to an unexpected error. The Remote Desktop software may not be installed correctly or the computer may require a restart.” [Quit] Apparently this is not a new problem, but Apple does not seem to have a robust fix. I have not changed anything! It was working fine before. I also tried re-installing it but still no luck. what worked for me was to remove /var/folders/zz but you can do this only if you disable system integrity test by booting into recovery partition (Cmd-R on startup), boot into terminal, type csrutil disable and reboot. Software shouldn’t be this fragile! Especially for pricy apps…

Love ARD. Always have loved it. As of the macOS Sierra update, the app no longer functions. Doesn’t even open. Launches and becomes unresponsive. Patch is needed. Will rate higher once patch is released.

on the same local network. Just tells me "Authentication failed to ..." I have Remove Management turned on for all users. This is extremely frustrating.

I am not sure why everyone likes this program. It seems to me 3.8 is worse using macOS Sierra. My drops connection evry 5-10 minutes. It makes this ordinarily good product hard to use.

Everyting was working fine until I updated to macOS Sierra. It does launch sometimes and other times it just stops responding on startup. A restart usually fixes this, but not always. Be aware that until Apple releases a fix this may happen to you if you plan on running ARD with macOS Sierra.

Apple is rotting at its core. Apple does nothing to update its applications, unless directly related to iPad sales to higher education. App Store has no means to reinstall this application, or any other, if the installation is broken.

The feature that allows you to drag n drop files and folders from your local machine to the remote no longer works in 3.7. I thought it may have been a preference that was changed in the update but have not been able to find any setting that makes a difference. It worked fine prior to 3.7 update. Local machine is 10.8.5 Avoid this update if this is a feature you use.

I use this in my classroom and didnt think twice about updating. BIG MISTAKE. The functionality is pretty much the same, but now you cant change the display order. I had the view match my classroom layout, three rows of 8 computers. Now it displays in four rows of six computer going top to bottom instead of across left to right first. Apple Please Fix This.

I downloaded apple remote desktop using a redemption code. After a software update apple remote desktop is asking me for a unique serial number that was never sent to me. I contacted apple support online, after explaining my issue to 3 different apple support pros. They came to the conclusion that I had to purchase it again for $80. Apple is full of BS.

This version (3.7) of the App is broken. Apple needs to fix it immediately. If you want more info, just put in “ARD 3.7 crashes” in any Apple Forum and see what comes up (Google it, too). I have tried to put in a bug report, but keep getting a “duplicate entry” reported which means hundreds of other users have already listed this version as extremely buggy. C’mon Apple…. you are better than this. This App is the backbone of almost any Sys Admin’s toolkit. Please take action ASAP!!!!

Hi, Recently received a message to update apple remote desktop and I did on my administrative computer. Rebooted and I get the same message that I must update. Amazing! Not sure what to do. Dan

UPDATE: THE CURRENT VERSION OF THIS APP WILL NOT ALLOW CONNECTIONS IF YOU HAVE THE MAC FIREWALL ENABLED ON THE TARGET MACHINE. OLD REVIEW FOLLOWS: This app works okay for my usage, which is mainly as a remote desktop application. I dont really use the remote administration or reporting features so I will not speak to those features. The Good: This app is nice in that you can locate other Macs, and either observe or control them or even run terminal commands. Connectivity to remote into other machines seems reliable. Theres a slider to adjust the image quality of the remote session based on your connection speed/quality. You can send power on, wake, sleep, power off commands without having to login to the machine. You can remote into another Lion machine without interrupting existing user sessions. The Bad: I have problems copying and pasting between the remote connection and the computer Im connecting from. The image quality is pretty dreadful even at the higher quality settings. There is no option to run your local machine as a native resolution display on the remote machine; that is to say everything is scaled or you need to scroll around your screen. It does not support Lions full-screen mode. If your computer is on a domain, the account that you remote in with must be an account on the client machine, but you can control any users actions.

This used to be a responsive usable tool. We use ARD school wide for support and classroom monitoring. Teachers use it and our IT staff uses it. Now I have constant complaints of ridiculous latency, dropped or missing information, and in some cases totally unresponsive clients. We are supporting 10.9, 10.8, and 10.7 clients. This went from one of my most prized tools to a huge source of frustration.

If you get this error message after updating, "The Remote Desktop client software on this computer does not match the administrator software version.” You will have to go to the Apple Support Website to download the Remote Desktop 3.7 client update. I am surprised they just didn’t include it with the Apple Remote Desktop Server app as a dependency install. Either way I am glad to have this back. Thanks, Mike

I rely on ARD to remote in and work on my 16-CPU workstation for parallel computing. Since the update, it does not work. Has interuppted my entire work flow. Will be uninstalling and moving to RealVNC tomorrow.

I had some initial trouble with the app on Mavericks, was constantly getting the error “The Remote Desktop client software on this computer does not match the administrator software version.” I installed the app manually from the Apple website and everything worked again. Great new features in the current version too. Thanks Apple!

This app worked well until the release of 3.7. It is now next to worthless. After the upgrade, Remote Desktop is putting garbage into the DNS name field. The status of 90+% of the Macs show Offline. I can remote control them, however, if I try to push a package or copy anything to a remote Mac, it fails. Even if the Mac is being controlled and I can see the screen, ARD lists it as offline. I cant believe that one of the biggest computer companies on earth cant handle DNS. Update 3.7.1 fixed nothing. It is still broke. Cant go back without going to each machine and loading 3.6. Apple, can you give us back 3.6? After charging me $80 for the program, the least you can do is go back to the one that worked.

The new update is atrocious. I am in a school environment with over 400 macs and when i do a network range scan it returns 5-10 machines. The rest show authenticating, offline, or access denied. If i scan 2 minutes later ill get a different 5 machines and the ones that showed up last time are now offline. Even if it says access denied i can still observe the screen i just cant copy files or install programs. Please give up on 3.7 and give us back 3.6 it worked so well!!

This app is way too sluggish to actually be useful. Update it to 64-bit or do whatever you have to do but performance-wise this app way over-bloated in terms of what it’s doing and how much memory and CPU its using to do it. I don’t know if Apple’s software teams are distracted or what but its no coincidence that all of Apple’s latest apps are averaging 2-3 stars. Where’s that quality that Apple is known for?